NEW YORK — There was a point, in the midst of the blur of points scored and buckets made, that a DePaul player had the nerve to stand up and bark in the face of the player behind it all. This was Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament and Charles McKinney, a junior guard for the Blue Demons, got in the face of Creighton’s Doug McDermott after the all-American had missed three shots in a row.

In less than family-friendly language, McKinney let McDermott know that things had changed.

McDermott looked up at the giant scoreboard above Madison Square Garden, looked down and then looked right at McKinney.

"Dude," he told the DePaul player. "I just got 29 on you."

McDermott would end the night with 35 points, setting a new Big East Tournament record with 27 in the first half. The next night in the semifinals against Xavier, he added 32. The shots come so fluidly and so easily that they appear effortless. This has been McDermott’s first and only go-around in the Big East, but his appearance this week in New York City has been exactly what everyone around him had hoped.

He’s been brilliant. He’s been captivating.

He’s been winning,

"It’s unbelievable," McDermott said after beating Xavier to advance to last night’s Big East Championship game. "It’s a feeling you can’t really describe. The fans are so close. All the focus is on the court. It’s so bright. Dark backdrop. It’s just a dream come true. It’s an unbelievable atmosphere and we couldn’t ask for a better way."

The Big East’s Player of the Year — and likely national player of the year — ended his first two nights at the Garden by moving up in the history books. He began the week with 3,011 points. But after his performances against DePaul and Xavier, scoring a total of 67 points, McDermott is all alone in fifth-place on the NCAA’s all-time scoring leaders. He entered the championship game just 22 points shy of 3,100 for his career — which would put him only 66 more away from fourth-place.

"We know when he’s in a zone," teammate Ethan Wragge said. "Us four seniors (McDermott, Wragge, Grant Gibbs, Jahenns Manigat), we came in with Doug. We’ve been here for four or five years all together. We’ve played enough to know that once he gets it rolling. But Doug’s got to know you. Because he if knows he’s a little off, he’s still going to draw attention.

"So, he’ll do things to help create. But when he’s on, he does a great job of playing off of me. If my guy is going to hug me at halfcourt, he knows what to do. We’re really comfortable playing with each other."

Sometimes, Creighton admits it can be too comfortable with McDermott when he’s on.

That’s because he makes it looks so effortless at times, the rest of his teammates can fall into the habit of watching him shoot. They say it’s almost hypnotic to watch the ball go up and in over and over again, that when it doesn’t — it’s almost a jolt to the system.

"The guys can get so worried about getting Doug loose, that maybe we’re not doing some of the things we should do," Doug’s father and Creighton head coach, Greg McDermott, said. "That’s an unselfish approach — which is good — but we also have to understand, by Doug doing that, it’s going to create something for somebody else."

It’s something that McDermott’s Bluejay teammates have had little trouble with this week at the Garden.